A Discourse on Paticcasamuppada

or The Doctrine of Dependent Origination

Chapter 6 - Puppharatta Jataka

Long ago, there was a poor man in Benares. He had only a suit of thick clothes. He washed it to wear during the Tazaungdine festival, but his wife disliked the white clothes and craved for a garment of pink colour. All his efforts to reason with her being in vain, the man at last sneaked into the royal garden at night to steal the flower that was to be used for dyeing his wifes garment. He fell into the hands of the guards and was ordered by the king to be impaled. He suffered terribly with the crows pecking at his eyes. Yet he murmured that his physical pain was nothing when compared to the mental suffering that overwhelmed him when he thought of the non fulfilment of his wifes desire and his inability to enjoy the festival together with her. So crying over his ill luck, he died and landed in hell.

Today, there may be many people who do evil due to the pressure of those whom they love. All these evil deeds comprise kammas stemming from upadana and leading to the lower worlds. So Visuddhimagga says: "Under the influence of sensual upadana, people do evil in deeds, words and thought because of their craving for sensual objects in the present life and their desire to preserve the objects in their possession. Such evil deeds usually lead to the lower worlds."